


Cities

by Damnmangoes



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland Friendship, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Bisexual Jace Wayland, Blind Character, Blindness, Eventual Smut, First Meetings, Fluff, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Jace Wayland is a Herondale, Multi, My First Fanfic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Contain Spoilers, Therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 21:58:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15204347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Damnmangoes/pseuds/Damnmangoes
Summary: A highschool au with several twists.Clary Fray has never been popular. She could tell you that herself. But by some miracle she ends up sitting next to Jace Herondale, the mysterious, blind student who transferred to her school last year. And he was very good-looking. That was good. But before she knows it, Clary is being swept up in his life and her eyes are opened to a world she had never dreamed existed.





	1. Us

“excuse me, can I sit here?”  
I snapped out of my daydreams about some crazy story with vampires and werewolves. I stared at the boy standing in front of me. I would say he was handsome, but that would be an understatement. This boy seemed almost otherworldly. He had blonde hair that was cut short and it glistened in the sunlight coming from the skylight. His skin was tanned and despite the fact the sweater he was wearing was baggy, I could tell he was muscular. His eyes were amazing. A gold, amber colour. I realized I hadn't answered the question. I tore my eyes away from him.

“Excuse me? Can I?” He seemed slightly awkward now. He gestured to the desk. The school had shitty desks with gum under them and writing on them. There were also a few detailed drawings of genitals that would have made my art teacher proud.

“Uh sorry,” I spoke finally and he smiled slightly. “Sure you can sit here.”

He smiled.

“I was beginning to wonder if I was talking to an empty chair. That would   
have been awkward.”

I glanced at the white cane in his hand. My smile was wiped off my face as he sat down and I realized who I was talking to. Jace Herondale. I knew who he was. Everyone did. He was Jace Herondale,one of the most popular kids in the school, at least he could be. He had transferred to our school last year alongside his siblings Alec and Isabelle Lightwood. Well,I don't think they were his siblings. Apparently his parents had died when he was young so he was taken in by the Lightwoods but he never took their name. I wasn't sure why. He was talked about a lot when he first transferred. I mean,it isn't everyday a blind kid comes to our school. Plus our school was boring. This was the most gossip we'd had in years.

I wasn't sure what people were expecting when they heard we were getting a blind student but it sure as hell wasn't Jace. Jace arrived into English class half an hour late on Monday morning. I wasn't in many of his classes but english was one of them. He instantly caught the attention of everyone in the room. The girls started whispering about his hotness and the boys seemed sort of pissed he was getting the attention. 

His siblings were attractive too, with dark hair and angular faces and pale olive skin that gave the impression that they were foreign. The resemblance ended there. Isabelle held herself with confidence that Alec didn't seem to possess. He was dressed in jeans and a baggy sweater, obviously trying to blend in, but Isabelle was dressed to stand out. Her hair flowed loose down her back, and her face was painted in makeup so beautiful I could never achieve that level of beauty. But for her it seemed to be everyday makeup. And her clothes… fancy jewellery, a very low cut top and very short shorts. And she was wearing heels! In a school! And not even modest heels. Great big stilettos.   
Obviously Mrs Sanders was pissed. Not only were they very, very late Izzy seemed to be very clearly breaking the dress code.  
“You're late. Half an hour late,” she crossed her arms. “Care to explain yourselves?”

Jace let go of Alec's arm. The gesture had seemed so natural I hadn't even noticed until he let go. I wondered if they did that a lot. Not many friends, especially male friends, would walk around holding each other's arms. Jace smiled apologetically.

“ I'm really sorry we're late Ms,it's just that we're new. So we had to go to the office in the morning and then we couldn't find the classroom. And obviously this;” he gestured to his eyes.”didn't help. Sorry”  
Mrs Sanders was rarely speechless but this was one of those times.

“Yes, I'm sorry. Um.. sit down and we'll continue the lesson.”  
I blinked. Jace had been saying something. Fuck, why did I daydream this much. He smiled.

“ What's your name?” He repeated.i cringed, wondering how many times he had said that.

“My name's Clary. Clary fray. We have English together as well as maths.”

“Do we? I'm not good with faces obviously. Clary… I haven't heard that name before. Is it short for something?”

“It's short for Clarissa but please don't call me that.”

He smiled again. Those lips… I could kiss them. What? Where did that come from? For a year I had prided myself on being there only girl in the school that did not have a crush on Jace Herondale. Basically every girl asked him out at the start. But he declined politely each time. And after a while the novelty grew of. He wasn't some mysterious transfer with a strange name. He was a blind, awkward teen who didn't have an interest in dating an obviously wanted to be left alone. 

Well, not alone exactly. He was basically never separated from the Lightwoods, especially the older one, Alec. He hung around with the blackthorn's too, I'm pretty sure they had known each other before coming here. I had seen him around Magnus Bane's crowd as well sometimes but I wasn't sure what inspired him to go near him. I mean, I had nothing against Magnus but he didn't seem to have much in common with Jace. 

Mostly though, he just stayed alone with the lightwoods who kept to themselves and rarely spoke in class. Outside of class though… I wasn't really sure what they did. 

There were also rumors that they occasionally went to parties. Not regular parties though, fancy parties with flashing lights and loud music and alcohol. And no adult supervision. Magnus Bane was sort of a mysterious student. Nobody really knew that much about him. All I knew was that his mother had died when he was young and he had moved here shortly after. And his mother had been very rich. So technically, he has all this money just laying around. And these parties were for the elite. Most of the popular kids didn't even get invited to these parties.

I spent most of the class zoned out (what's new) and staring at Jace. I know it was extremely rude and sort of creepy but I couldn't stop. After the class had ended Jace stood up and I knew I had to say something.

“Um, do you want to have lunch with me?” 

He refused obviously, but at least he tried to be nice.

“I'm sorry, I can't.”

“It's okay, I shouldn't have asked.” I started to walk away, feeling incredibly embarrassed.

“I mean, I would, I just.. I'm leaving the school now. I'm going home early.”

“Really?”

I must have sounded suspicious because he laughed.

“Yeah, Alec has a thing today and Izzy went with him and now I have to go with him.”

“What thing?”

“I'm sorry, but I really shouldn't tell you. It's sort of a secret.”

“Listen, it's fine if you don't want to eat with me. You don't need to make an excuse.”

“I'm not making excuses. Maybe tomorrow you could eat with us? We eat in the library.”

“The library?”

“Yeah, pretty ironic isn't it. But seriously, it's really quiet up there so we can have some peace. We like being alone. If it proves to you I wasn't making excuses you can join us.”

“Um okay. Uh, thanks.” 

As I walked of I resisted the urge to skip. Jace Herondale just invited me to have lunch!


	2. This

I basically ran home after school. I couldn't believe that had actually happened! I mean, so many girls had tried to get him to spend time with them and now he wanted to have lunch with me. Me! I was admittedly not the most popular girl in school. I mean, most of the time I was fine being by myself but something about Jace made me feel self conscious about the fact that the last friend I had had was Simon Lewis and even he had abandoned me.

Simon Lewis was nice. He wasn't exactly good looking and he was very socially awkward and nerdy. I guess things change though, because we started to drift apart and we barely talk now. Apparently he had started some blog or something that popular kids seemed to like and he started to be invited to parties. I wasn't. So we started to not talk to each other.

The next day I spent a long time styling my hair and putting on makeup. Makeup was not one of my talents and I spent 15 minutes applying silver eyeliner I had stolen from my mum. It was pretty sad that my mum was better looking than me. Then I spent another 15 minutes applying concealer and foundation. To be honest, I wasn't sure what the difference between the two were so I just put them randomly on my face. I put on eyeshadow and lipgloss and stared at my reflection. I didn't look perfect, and definitely not as beautiful as Isabelle Lightwood, but I looked better then normal. 

Then my hair. I hated my hair. It was too thin and straggly and it was bright orange. I tugged at it and began to brush it. This was hopeless. I tied it back in a bun and put on a headband. It would have to do. 

As I walked into the kitchen my mum raised an eyebrow. 

“What's with the makeup? You generally aren't one for putting on makeup. You look nice darling.”

“Thanks… and it's nothing really, I'm just going to eat lunch with some people and I want to make a good impression.”

“People? What people?”

My mum loved getting involved in my life and generally I do tell her everything but this time I was reluctant. “Just some people…. It's not important who.”

“Come on… tell me”

“Jace Herondale and Alec and Isabelle lightwood. You don't know them.”

“Oh…. They were new last year, weren't they?”

“How do you remember that?”

“I knew Michael herondale. It was tragic what happened to him…. And the poor son. It was lucky that the Lightwoods took him in. Otherwise… I don't know what would have happened to him.”

“You know who they are? I thought they were foreign.”

“They are, they're from a place called Idris. It's in northern italy. It's a beautiful city, it's small though.”

“Idris? I've never heard of that.” I hadn't heard of a place called Idris but then again, I was crap at geography.

“Yes, it's a rather small city and they keep to themselves, aren't involved much with politics. It's only recently that they started to work with America, trying to get a tourist trade and things going. They want to pledge an allegiance to the American government. It's a small place so they need to be friendly with the rest of the world. Most of the politics have been kept private, so that's why it doesn't seem familiar. I think the lightwoods were involved in politics. The parents, that is.”

“Okay.” That was very interesting. “How do you know them?” 

“I spent part of my childhood in Alicante, the busy part of idris. I went to school with them. I didn't get along very well with Robert and Maryse, even then.”

“I didn't know that.”

She smiled as I packed my lunch and left. 

“Have a good day!”

The rest of the day was tediously slow. It felt as if each period lasted 5 years. Eventually the bell for lunch rang and I sprinted out of the room. Then I realized I didn't know where the library was.   
The school was big, and had 2 libraries. A small library and a big library. I presumed Jace had meant the small library. It seemed much nicer than the big library, which didn't even have windows. But they weren't there. I waited a few minutes before heading to the other library. 

The library was huge and intimating. It was old fashioned, with huge shelves reaching up to the roof and you needed a ladder to reach the ones at the top. The books were covered in a thin layer of dust. I presumed not many teenagers would come here when they had phones. I didn't read that much but I still felt vaguely sad that the library had practically been abandoned. The place was filled with so much knowledge that would slowly rot away…. I focused again and started to look for them

The library had a corner with a few old, overstuffed sofas around a coffee table. The table was a mess, with a few textbooks thrown open on it and a stack of books that looked like they had been written in the early eighteen hundreds balanced precariously on the edge of the table. A laptop was facing Alec. 

Isabelle was sprawled across one of the sofas and was sitting with another laptop on her stomach and was reading out information. Alec was sitting cross-legged on another sofa and Jace sat beside him grinning widely. He had an arm casually thrown around Alec's shoulders. Izzy continued to read. I heard the words lawsuit, human rights and representative. It didn't sound particularly amusing to me, but Jace seemed to find it funny. Alec was smiling slightly too. 

“Hey guys,” I stood awkwardly in front of them.

“Clary!” Jace turned towards me. “I was beginning to think you wouldn't turn up.”

“Who's this?” Alec didn't seem as happy to see me. Actually, he seemed vaguely annoyed. Jace didn't seem to notice.

“This is Clary. From maths. And I think she's in English too. I said she could sit with us.”

“Nice to meet you Clary.” Isabelle sat up and patted the sofa next to her. She quickly closed the laptop before I could tell what she was looking at. I sat down. “I'm Izzy. And this is Alec.” she gestured at him. “and you already know Jace.”

Her friendliness put me at ease and I felt slightly less nervous. I looked at Alec again. He seemed kind of miserable underneath the annoyance. He had bags under his eyes. I wondered briefly if the stress of school was getting to him. I didn't say anything because Jace and Izzy (should I call her Izzy? Do I know her well enough to call her that?) seemed perfectly energetic.

“So… what do you? Do you have hobbies or something?” Izzy beamed at me. She seemed happy I was here. Or maybe she just liked meeting new people. I couldn't relate.

“Um….” I tried to think. What hobbies did I have that I could say without sounding like a total loser? “I do art.”

“Like drawing or something? I wish I was artistic. I can paint a bit but not very well.” She seemed genuine which surprised me. How could someone like her be jealous of someone like me?

Jace laughed. “What about the two inches of makeup you wear everyday? Is that art?” 

Izzy blushed. “I do not wear two inches of makeup! Who told you that? Alec? I bet it was you!” 

Alec smiled weakly. He looked like he was about to faint. Was he really that tired? Jace was still smiling. 

“Are you good at art?” He asked.

“Well, my art teacher thinks I am, anyway.” I laughed nervously.

“Who's your art teacher?” He leans forward slightly.

“Mr Blackthorn.” Why was he asking? Did he genuinely care or was he just being nice?

“Mr Blackthorn?!” Alec had been drinking when I had said it and had proceeded to spill water all over the sofa. 

“Oh my God.” Izzy seemed like she was going to burst out laughing but Alec did not seem amused. “Poor Mr Blackthorn.”  
“What's wrong?” I asked curiously. 

“Nothing.” Alec said quickly as Izzy burst out laughing.

“Nothing? Nothing?! Is that what you call-”

“Shut up Izzy.” Jace seemed to agree that it wasn't a funny situation. “It's not funny.”

“I'm sorry… Its just so funny that poor old Mr Blackthorn who is basically 80 had to deal with it.”

Mr Blackthorn was an old man and it was a miracle he was still teaching. He taught art and history which was a weird combination. He was frail, and basically senile by now so he wasn't a very good teacher. You could basically do what you want in class. Which was bad because I wanted to be good at art and actually learn. He also worked in something called 'mental health tutor’ which was apparently just telling depressed kids they needed therapy and Prozac. I wondered why Alec was dealing with him?

Izzy quickly changed the subject and started talking about some business project she's doing. I gazed at Jace. I really did not want to start crushing on him. It was going to end up with me being shut down faster than I could try to kiss him. But maybe I could take the risk? He seemed to like me if he invited me, out of all the girls in the school, to lunch with him.

The rest of lunch went very well and I learnt a lot about Izzy. Apparently she wants to be a lawyer so she's studying business really hard. I also learnt that despite the fact that she loves parties and makeup and short dresses, she's a genuinely nice person and she wants to do well in school. She even invited me to join them again on Monday. I agreed. Then she asked for my number. I was shocked but I gave it to her. 

That night I was lying in bed, scrolling through Instagram, when I got a text from Izzy.

“There's a party at Magnus’ in an hour. I'll send the address XX”


End file.
